Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Creeping edgework
T2 - carnivalesque consumption and the social experience of health risk
AU - Cronin, James
AU - McCarthy, Mary
AU - Collins, Alan
PY - 2014/11
Y1 - 2014/11
N2 - This article contributes to an understanding of voluntary health risk based on the regular, excessive intake of food and alcohol in the micro-cultural setting. By drawing on and extending edgework theory our aim is to conceptualise the riskiness of carnivalesque consumption as a medium for expression and performance in two separate community contexts. Using ethnographic research methods, we explore the consumption of calorie-dense, low nutrient food for gamers and the use of alcohol for hipsters. Our findings are reported over four key themes. The first and last consider how carnivalesque consumption provides sensations for multi-sensory loss of self and a shared emancipation from day-to-day moderation. The second and third explore how community members prepare and exercise control over their consumption to manage risks related to an ‘immediate edge’. We discuss how carnivalesque behaviour, when ritualised, establishes a trajectory that creeps towards a more ‘distant edge’ characterised by longer term health consequences. We argue that the transcendental experiences that are part and parcel of edgework can be enacted by products that are traditionally conceptualised as mundane and that the risks of consuming them are largely accumulative rather than instantaneous. Implications for health interventions are included.
AB - This article contributes to an understanding of voluntary health risk based on the regular, excessive intake of food and alcohol in the micro-cultural setting. By drawing on and extending edgework theory our aim is to conceptualise the riskiness of carnivalesque consumption as a medium for expression and performance in two separate community contexts. Using ethnographic research methods, we explore the consumption of calorie-dense, low nutrient food for gamers and the use of alcohol for hipsters. Our findings are reported over four key themes. The first and last consider how carnivalesque consumption provides sensations for multi-sensory loss of self and a shared emancipation from day-to-day moderation. The second and third explore how community members prepare and exercise control over their consumption to manage risks related to an ‘immediate edge’. We discuss how carnivalesque behaviour, when ritualised, establishes a trajectory that creeps towards a more ‘distant edge’ characterised by longer term health consequences. We argue that the transcendental experiences that are part and parcel of edgework can be enacted by products that are traditionally conceptualised as mundane and that the risks of consuming them are largely accumulative rather than instantaneous. Implications for health interventions are included.
KW - voluntary risk
KW - community of consumption
KW - food
KW - alcohol
KW - edgework
U2 - 10.1111/1467-9566.12155
DO - 10.1111/1467-9566.12155
M3 - Journal article
VL - 36
SP - 1125
EP - 1140
JO - Sociology of Health and Illness
JF - Sociology of Health and Illness
SN - 0141-9889
IS - 8
ER -